Victory

You are the man who used to boast
That you'd achieve the uttermost,
Some day.

You merely wished a show,
To demonstrate how much you know
And prove the distance you can go.....

Another year we've just passed through.
What new ideas came to you?
How many big things did you do?

Time.....left twelve fresh months in your care
How many of them did you share
With opportunity and dare
Again where you so often missed?

We do not find you on the list of Makers Good.
Explain, the fact!
Ah no, 'twas not the chance you lacked!
As usual-you failed to act!

Herbert Kauffman

My Creed by Dean Alfange

Read this earlier and it got me thinking about todays society. What if we all decided to apply this in our lives.

I do not choose to be a common man or woman. It is my right to be uncommon-if I can.

I seek opportunity-not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.

I want to take the calculated risk-to dream and build-to fail and succeed.

I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to be guaranteed existence-the thrill of fulfillment to the calm state of Utopia.

I will not trade freedom for beneficence-nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master-nor bend to any threat.

It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid-to think and act for myself-enjoy the benefits of my creations and to face the world boldly, and say-This I have done.

Making a difference one living room at a time

These last couple of weeks have been some of the most amazing in my life. I just experienced one of the best weekends with Team ever! So excited to see the pre-launch of our new industry, L.I.F.E., finally be announced. Living Intentionally For Excellence will no doubt grow into one of the greatest personal development companies in the world.

The Lord has opened my eyes in sooooooooooooo many ways as I continue to work with people. Building a business you would never really expect the impact you will have in the lives of others as you are sitting at their kitchen table scratching out some principles you have learned. I've recently had the great opportunity to start working and watching Bill grow in ways I never imagined. In the past month through the association with Team and listening to an awesome system he has re-committed his life to Christ, spending more time with his wife and kids, kicked a few bad habits and even cancelled cable! Now I know most who read this won't understand cable and I won't even begin to explain all those details but one amazing decision that has changed his life in 2 short weeks. What a victory it is for me sitting front row watching him grow into the man he was called to be.

Another awesome victory has been watching the Lord speak to my sister, and she's starting to realize it. Chris Brady served the Lord in a big way with his sermon on Sunday and many answered prayers came to life that day. I can't even begin to describe the feeling in my heart when I heard her say she was going to start seeking more information in the Faith category of her 8F's.

Not sure where exactly I was going with the blog but my heart is just so filled with joy as I continue to go out into different living rooms every night to see where I can make a difference in a new strangers life. I honestly don't know how more people don't do what I do. This is the most amazing feeling in the world. I'm looking forward to another great week and as always I'm looking forward to the growth of all these individuals as they begin their journey to a better L.I.F.E.

Proverbs 13:20

Become OTHERS focused

I read a short article about this earlier today and it finally dawned on me how true it was. Zig Ziglar said help enough other people get what they want and you'll have everything you want.

So many of us look at success in one category, money. Although some success does have money, I'm talking how much you keep not how much you make, ultimately I believe true success at least in my life is when I balance the 8F's that are taught in Team (Faith, Family, Finance, Fitness, Friends, Fun, Following and Freedom).

There was a point in my life where the only success I cared about was the finance part. Recently as my heart has been opened have I become aware of all these other areas. Chris Brady said that by helping others get what they want you receive so much more. You receive their thanks and gratitude, adulation and respect, friendship and loyalty, comfort and presence. Just by being the "raiser" of others you have raised yourself.

I am finding that statement so true lately as I've been receiving text after text from people thanking me for helping them or simply believing in them. I can't even begin to explain the joy that comes over your heart knowing the simple little things you did are making the biggest impacts of those around you.

God has been teaching me so much through L.I.F.E. and the 8F's. I am so excited for what He has planned through Team and the direction we are going. I strongly encourage that whatever it is you decide to do ALWAYS put others before you, it will fulfill your heart in more ways than you can imagine.

Living Intentially For Excellence

I'm not even sure how to start this blog but so much has been going through my mind over the last few days. God has been so good to me lately and I'll never truly understand why. I kinda wanna build on the blog I posted a few weeks ago about personal growth.

Its amazing when you get to see the journey of those around you who are taking that path of growth seriously. You have to shut off so much of what's going on around you (TV, radio, news, gossip etc) for you to maximize on your potential. Now I'm not suggesting ignore everyone but remember, crap in crap out. So you have to really guard what goes in your mind and also you have to make sure what you are feeding your mind is great and feed it often.

Most people know I work with a Leadership Development Community known as Team. The system we have set up through seminars, cds and books is by far one of the best educational systems I have seen. I have learned more over the last couple of years through Team than all my other years combined.

What is most amazing and rewarding though to me is watching friends and family grow and change right in front of you. For example my sister has been taking the education more serious over the course of a few months and listening to the things and changes she is putting in her life the last couple of weeks are amazing. Someone gave me a pat on the back for being that example and I just shake my head, cause it wasn't me, all I said to her was find a way to get the material. She did and now I just sit back and laugh, and wonder who is this woman I used to know as my sister?!

Another friend who we will call Lisa ;) Having a conversation with her the other day over the difference she can feel in her life after a short period of a year of being plugged into the right organization. The growth in her life, becoming closer to God and figuring out her life's purpose have been some things I have seen in her. Oh and can't forget the way her attitude has changed over the year as well!

Funny how now I'm working with a new young man and in the course of a couple weeks I've seen some major changes in him. Can't wait to see what He does through this young man in the days to come. I can go on and on about the countless lives I've seen changed and the difference I see us making in the communities across this country. I'm excited for the end of this month where we officially launch LIFE (Living Intentially For Excellence). Its hard to believe I actually make money doing this and that I get the opportunity to help others make money through LIFE.

Whatever your road may be and whatever God has called you to do, do it with excellence.

1 Corinthians 10:31

Improving in fitness

Its been a long battle getting this area of my life back on the track it used to be on. As most of you read from other blogs I got side tracked there for a couple of years and let a lot slip away. These past 6 months have been a real up and down battle in discipline for both exercise and eating.

My eating habits are improving in a huge way over the last couple of months. Now over the last 2 weeks I've been really disciplined. After hearing Mark and Jenn Paul speak a month ago about this subject it reminded me how important this area is! My weight is finally going in the right direction as well :)

Running is still off and on for me. Would love to be consistent once again. I still have that fear when I'm out there I'm going to somehow find another hole to step in or a loose stone that i'll roll my ankle on. But the good news I am out there doing it. Now the gym is amazing right now. My workouts are back the way it used to be a few short years ago. Seeing a lot of changes in my body. I'm back to having a solid figure and I'm loving it!

A lot of people are asking me what events I'm training for and my answer is nothing. I'm just enjoying this for now. I am looking at VA half marathon though and probably the Crim. Also I'm doing the Holland century bike ride in 3 weeks, which reminds me I should probably get the dust off my bike! I keep thinking about a few different events but right now God has me working in other areas and racing will have to take a backseat to His current plans for me :)

However I would love to encourage you to take this part of your life more serious. We seem to come up with waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to many excuses as to why we can't. If you need workout time, take your scheduled TV time and put workouts in that time slot instead :) You won't regret it. When your body is operating and fuctioning properly because you have fed it well and worked out other areas in your life will greatly improve.

Get in shape and God bless :)

Be on a continuous growth journey

I had a great conversation with my sister over the weekend. We were absolutely blown away once again by another Team seminar. Learning about LIFE and the 8F's has made a great change in my life and others around me.

Our conversation led to us talking about people we keep coming into contace with who don't seem to know there is a purpose for them. Or there are the ones who already think they know it all because they have a degree. They stopped learning when they got the degree but somehow in a rapidly changing society they still know it all :)

I strongly believe one of the biggest problems in our culture today is that we are not learning. Society seems to have us on a system to program us into believing their way is the only way or if you listen to us everything will just work out fine. Not sure how it is we fall for this kind of thing but it's a bit scary.

I think one of the most important things we can do to improve our country is to actually read more than we do. To many of us come home from work and turn on the boob tube, yes thats what I called it because it tends to numb our brains. Just look at all the so called reality tv, as my sister said how is that reality?

What would happen if we took all the money and time we spent on cable and TV programs and applied it to books on leadership, economics, history, finances and most important the Bible. You would see the real change in your country you so desire to see. But it comes down to us making the commitment to actually follow through on this and then educate others to do the same.

Now I'm not saying don't enjoy life, after all I love sports and watching sports. My world just doesn't revolve around the home team making the playoffs, now if they do thats always great, but what if our main focus in life was to actually be on a continuous growth journey. I pray that when my life ends they find me with a book and that those around me can say that I improved who I was everyday.

IWIAATS Mission Statement

We are Team IWIAATS, we lead courageously everyday in the living rooms across the country. We make an effort everyday to build a team of lifters. We dream big enough to oversee are obstacles. We keep the bar raised high on character, integrity and honor. And we, as a unified team, set a standard-a standard of power player! Where we believe our team will go to a million and more by going power player over and over and over again. And as a team we will give all praise and glory to Christ who strengthens us.

My 3P's

These are 3 words I carry on my heart and in my mind in all things that I do, my life with Christ, my racing and my business. They are Passion, Persevere and Persist. It's hard to put these in an order of importance but I truly believe that together they form a winning combination for success in anything.

Passion is defined as an emotion so strong that it overpowers a person. You think about that definition, those are strong words. Overpower a person. That means passion can rule you, good or bad. I've met and read about people with passions for wrong things. Luckily I know personally many people with passion to achieve great with all that God has given them. What are the things that drive you or fuel your heart to change. I'm passionate about living a life of excellence. I don't want to waste a single day. Standing for truth and freedom or some things that drive a lot of what I do. I also have passion for teaching our next generation and being an example of a life well lived for them to see. A great example of a passionate life to me is a man named Chris Brady. That man strives like no one I've met to learn and teach truth to people. He has so much drive to become all that God has created him to be, his passion for life is so strong that I can truly see how it can overpower a person and change him into something great.

Persevere is to keep on doing something in spite of the difficulty or obstacle. Theres a whole different word right there, obstacle. We all have those. Most of us tend to let obstacles stop us right in our tracks, where we sit and wait till the day we bury us. Random few find ways to get around, go through or climb over obstacles. Personal examples to me would be friends like Lisa Buchanan. Watching her grow has been amazing. She has every reason to give up right now, her husband died a year ago, her house can't sell in this market, having a hard time finding a job, and trying to build a leadership business while being a person who comes off as shy. Through all of this I have never seen her use any of these as a reason to not succeed. Change is never easy, but to persever change is necessary. Believe me she's changing. She's becoming more and more comfortable around people. Realizing that to be a champion she will have to keep pushing through these difficulties, and I have no doubt I'll see her on stage as a Black Diamond. Jeremy Auld is another example of perseverance. This is the guy who inspired me to run my first marathon. He's a heavy set man who has ran many marathons, done century rides and whatever crazy thing he can come up with. About a year ago he had a health challenge that threatened to stop all of that, but for some reason it didn't. He fought through that challenge and by the end of the summer we were doing another 100 mile bike ride. And through those health challenges he just finished a week ago running over 200 laps at some indoor track, thats a ton of circles! These are the people I look up to and admire. The ones who look at their challenges and become stronger instead of going home to sit on the couch and just ignore them. This country needs more men and women like Lisa and Jer.

My last P is persist, to refuse to give up. To keep going when everyone else has gone home. I would say this is the hardest. This country seems to applaud quitters these days. Well it just wasnt' meant to be we tell them, or well thats just for those kind of people. Hogwash! Honestly who are you feeding that crap to. If that were my kid or my sister you were feeding that to I would honestly have to tell you to shut up and stop brainwashing my family. I mean if you wanna quit then fine but don't try to build an army of quitters, you'll never get anywhere! I love people who keep going, who push through the barriers. Those are the people we need to model. My friend Victoria is a great example of persistence. She set out to do her first half ironman back in the summer of 09. Swimming was and still is her weakest link. She never gave up though. I remember being with her in the water a couple weeks before the event, and let me tell you she shouldn't by any stretch of the imagination be ready for a 1.2 mile swim! But she absolutely refused to let that control her or allow her to give up on the goal of being a half ironman(woman). She did that race and now with swimming being still a huge challenge is pushing herself to do the full ironman, 2.4 mile swim! Churchill once said in front of a group of kids, never, never, never give up. Then he left the stage, I think he though to persist was important!

These 3P's are thrown together at the moment. My notes are a mess right now on them but they have been on my mind long enough where I thought it was important to mention now. Write out in your life where passion, persevere and persist can be applied. We need more people like you in our country who will be those champions.

Rascal Manifesto by Chris Brady

Rascal Manifesto

I was born free and I intend to live like it.

This means that I will live my life while I'm alive.

No one owns me except my Creator.

No one can put me in a box, a category, a social group,

a voting block, or a classification.

I am fiercely independent, and with those aligned with

me in common purpose, interdependent.

I know that with my freedom comes responsibility.

I take responsibility for my own actions, and I hold the

bar high on myself.

I am not afraid to struggle, because it's the struggle that

makes me great.

I know that excellence always lies on the other side of

inconvenience.

I am a learning machine.

I read, I confront brutal reality, I grow.

Long term, no one and nothing can defeat me, because

I will keep coming back, stronger and better than before.

I will educate myself about the true principles of freedom,

and I will strive mightily to preserve freedom for

the next generation.

I rely on no man and no government to provide for me.

I will not follow the herd of mediocrity and

victim-thinking.

I don't follow herds, instead I run with a pack-a pack

of Rascals.

Let others bask in their privileges, as for me, I will

invest them in my purpose.

I will defy tyranny.

I will charge the hill.

I will make a difference.

I'm a Rascal!

My road back to recovery.....

2010 was a slow year for me. Took the year off from all the traveling and racing, I was just exhausted. Well for some reason on a year I took off I end up with all sorts of injuries.

The latest one came back in December when I decided it was time to get moving again. I was out for my morning run when I took the opportunity to step in a hole just a little bigger than my foot. Lucky for me I wasn't far from home, had to hop all the way back. Never felt pain like that before. Needless to say I stopped running for 2 months.

This was extremely difficult because I wasn't sure if this was something that could end my running for good. As many of you know I started dieting in December, well when this happened I had a hard time sticking to anything. I couldn't seem to keep my head in the game because I was so upset over my ankle. I was still able to exercise, I still rode my bike and lifted weights. So I did gain some upper body strength but I also watched my weight go back up the scale.

Well 2 weeks ago I was able to go back out for my first run, I felt like a million bucks. Sometimes I think the best thing for you can probably be a little time away. Haven't ran in the last couple days though due to some extreme snow! Plus there was ice on the road and I'm not taking the chance of slipping. So I have been on the bike like crazy. Still in the gym and I can slowly see my body develop back into the form it used to be. Plus being back running has re-inspired my diet. Back on the RVL and eating better for the rest of my meals. Down 8lbs last week. Still have a long way to go though.

I'm going to run my first race this year, and actually first race since July, on March 26th. To my running friends in the area would love to see you out there running as well. I don't have plans this year to do anything out of the ordinary. I'm just going to take it one race at a time for now, but I'm sure something will change that...........